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China's Chen Long competes during the men's singles badminton match against Indonesia's Tommy Sugiarto at the quarterfinals of the Sudirman Cup World Team Badminton Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on May 23, 2013. Chen won 2-0.

IT took two big blows in the Sudirman Cup to expose Malaysia’s lack of depth and a rather disturbing future in the national badminton team.

The dream of reaching the semi-finals at home was shattered when Malaysia lost both their Group C ties at Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil. Taiwan served the first blow on Sunday with a 3-2 win and German knocked them out with a 3-2 victory on Tuesday.

While Taiwan and Germany advanced to the quarter-finals with huge smiles, Malaysia were left in tears despite having home ground advantage.

It was Malaysia’s second defeat to Germany in the Sudirman Cup. In 2001 at Sevilla, Spain, Malaysia had also lost 3-2 to Germany.

Interestingly, on both occasion, Malaysia won their men’s singles and doubles events but dropped points in the women’s singles, doubles and mixed.

The sad situation is that even after 12 long years, Malaysia have not shown any sign of improvement as far as the depth of the team is concerned despite so many changes in the training and coaching structures.

SOUTH KOREA can breathe easy now as they have another Lee to keep the flag flying high in the men’s singles event.

Following the retirement of Lee Hyun-il, South Korea had been searching for a new star to take over and they may have just found the right replacement in Lee Dong-keun (pic) if his performances in the ongoing Sudirman Cup is anything to go by.

The 22-year-old Dong-keun hardly showed any nerves despite playing as the first singles for the first time.

In fact, he played confidently to contribute points in both his team’s group ties by winning against higher ranked players – Tanongsak Saen­somboonsuk (12-21, 21-9, 22-20) of Thailand and Wong Wing Ki (21-16, 21-15) of Hong Kong.

Dong-keun is ranked 63rd in the world while Tanongsak and Wing Ki are ranked 15th and 25th respectively.

Defending champions China had to dig deep to avoid a surprise defeat to Indonesia, winning 3-2 on Thursday in the quarter-finals of the Sudirman Cup.

KUALA LUMPUR: Defending champions China had to dig deep to avoid a surprise defeat to Indonesia, winning 3-2 on Thursday in the quarter-finals of the Sudirman Cup.

Two days after whipping their arch rivals 5-0 in a group match, China, who have not lost a tie since falling 2-3 to South Korea in the 2003 final, were stunned by a determined and gallant Indonesian outfit.

China will play Denmark in Saturday's semi-finals after the Europeans easily defeated underdogs Taiwan 3-0.

At the last Sudirman Cup two years ago, China thrashed Denmark 3-0 in the final. And Chinese supremo Li Yongbo was unperturbed.

"We have won it for so many times - eight times," the coach said after their match against Indonesia.

KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 (BadmintonPlanet.com) -- Indonesia almost scared China in their second meeting in three days but the defending champions still made the semifinals of the Sudirman Cup here on Thursday.

Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir took a good start for Indonesia as they stunned Olympic runners-up Xu Chen/Ma Jin in mixed doubles at 21-18, 14-21 and 21-16. But Chen Long quickly leveled the score for China after he thrashed Tommy Sugiarto 21-11, 21-15 in men's singles. Suairto is the only Indonesian player who stayed in the lineup as in Tuesday's group match against China.